It's been a mild winter, but it feels way too long already. Has it really been 3 1/2 months since I've flown? Can't recall anything after Quad cities.

Have to find something else to enjoy when not standing outside in a nice breeze. Anybody else play games? Card games, board games, whatever.

I used to play a lot of games as a kid, but not so much in recent years. Just not as many people around that like to play and not many opportunities. At family gatherings, we used to break out a game that a bunch of people could play, like Apples to Apples, or Pictionary or Taboo or Balderdash. After kids, we usually had to leave earlier, forgoing the gaming into the evening.

With Kayla getting older and more able to play games more complex than Hungry Hungry Hippos, I'm trying to get her into some things we can play together. Just recently I bought a several new (for us) games that we've been playing...some very simple, some that push her abilities a little.

There's Spot It. A really easy to learn and play card game. It's been a hit with young kids and adults. It has these cards where any two cards have one and only one picture in common between them. You have to be the first to identify the match to your card to win the card.

And I got Bananagrams, a letter tile word game where you race to make a crossword grid of words. You can make and remake it as you need to so that all your letters are used. Comes in a portable little banana shaped bag.

Word On The Street. You try to win letters by moving them to your side by coming up with words in response to cards with descriptions or categories. You move the letters in your word a space toward you for each occurrence in your word, trying to capture 8 of them off the board.

And Sumoku is a number based tile game where you make a crossword of numbers that have to be multiples of either 3, 4 or 5 (depending on the game) and don't repeat any colors. Another very portable game that comes in a little travel bag.

We play banagrams too, but we use entirely different rules. We don't make crosswords at all.Briefly: Turn over the tiles one by one in the middle of the table. As soon as you can make a word of 4 or more letters, you shout out the word and form it in front of you. Then continue to turn the letters one by one. In addition to making new words, if you can make a word by adding it to someones existing word and anagramming it, you shout it out and steal their word. Play until someone has 5 words in front of them and wins.

We play Settlers of Catan and various card games. The card game we most often play is a variant of Oh Heck.

We less often play Carcassonne and a few others. Rose will remember them....Rose, how about that game you guys bring over, the Haunted House/Traitor game?

Mike wrote:We play banagrams too, but we use entirely different rules. We don't make crosswords at all.Briefly: Turn over the tiles one by one in the middle of the table. As soon as you can make a word of 4 or more letters, you shout out the word and form it in front of you. Then continue to turn the letters one by one. In addition to making new words, if you can make a word by adding it to someones existing word and anagramming it, you shout it out and steal their word. Play until someone has 5 words in front of them and wins.

We play Settlers of Catan and various card games. The card game we most often play is a variant of Oh Heck.

We less often play Carcassonne and a few others. Rose will remember them....Rose, how about that game you guys bring over, the Haunted House/Traitor game?

Well then, you need to rename your version since it's totally different. Maybe, Plantaingrams?

I've long wanted to try Settlers of Catan since I've heard many people talk about it, but there's never been anyone to play with. I did just notice that they have Android and iOS versions of it. I'm not sure what the online play capabilities are. It says you can play with up to 4 players, I don't know if they randomly select or if you can choose. But there's also the option to play against computer opponents. I may just get that to try it out.

Rose made a lego version of Settlers of Catan. Settlers is a mild strategy game, the dice play too big a role to make it truly strategic, but it makes for a nice family/social game.Next time we spend a weekend at a festival, we can bring a copy of the game to play. I think Mikey plays it too?

I like some randomness. If it's all hardcore strategy, then the experienced players will always crush the more casual players. I would never play chess against a really good player. I don't like having zero chance. So I'm good with some luck being involved.

I've heard good things about the Catan app, and it's certainly a fun game. We regularly have "Northside Nerd Night" up here in Chicago where we get together once a month or so to play games from banagrams to Catan to the more strategic. Some of our favorite games for grown-ups are Pandemic (all players work together to try and save the world from multiple global epidemics), Dominion ( a new genre of game where you build a deck of cards with various abilities), and Gamers vs Evil ( a more fun example of said deck-building genre).The game Dad mentioned that I've brought home to play is Betrayal at House on the Hill which recently came back into print and is essentially the board game version of a campy horror movie - very fun, and it's different every time you play. For good family fun, and probably a game Kayla could wrap her mind around, there's Fluxx. This game starts with no rules until you play cards that have various rules on them. It's easy to learn and silly to play!

This oughta get you warp drives revving. Star Trek, the legendary sci-fi TV show, and Settlers of Catan, the classic German board game, are combining forces for Star Trek Catan.Yep, you heard that right. Catan fanatics and Trekkies will finally unite. Board Game Geek reports that the game will be coming to a galaxy far, far away (also known as Germany) this March. A U.S. release is in the works too.What’s the premise of Star Trek Catan?Well, instead of the traditional resources of ore, brick, wheat, sheep and wood, game players purchase and trade Dilithium, Tritanium, food, oxygen and water. And, instead of roads, villages and cities, they “build spaceships that connect regions in the galaxy” and “establish small and large space stations at new intersection points in order to increase resource acquisition,” according to Board Game Geek.And what about that pesky robber?Well, there’s a Trekkie twist on that front too. “On a dice roll of 7, a Klingon ship swoops in to prevent resource production on one planet, while taxing spacegoers who hold too many resources,” reports Board Game Geek.

New game for the list. Well, not totally new as I've heard of it and it's very popular.

But Ticket To Ride is a neat board game sort of in the tradition of Catan in that you use cards to claim routes on the map.

It's also available in electronic versions.

I bring it up because this game was just included in the Humble Bundle 7 for Android, where you can pay once price and get 7 different games. So, while it is normally a 6 or 7 dollar game, I got 7 games for $7, including Ticket To Ride, and the Ticket To Ride 1910 expansion pack with a new map and play options.

It is available on the other platforms and the web (as well as the traditional board game), it's just that this deal is running right now.

Mike wrote:Rose made a lego version of Settlers of Catan. Settlers is a mild strategy game, the dice play too big a role to make it truly strategic, but it makes for a nice family/social game.Next time we spend a weekend at a festival, we can bring a copy of the game to play. I think Mikey plays it too?

More games!...went on a binge around the holidays and stocked up on more to play at various gatherings...

King of Tokyo:

A fun game for all ages. You are a monster attacking Tokyo, and you want to be the baddest one. Either win on victory points, or defeat all the other monsters. Mostly a dice game, mild strategy.

Wits and Wagers:

Good party game. Guess answers to numeric questions. Try to be closest without going over. Once the guesses are in, you bet on which answer will be closest, and you get your points by picking the winning answer.

Dixit:

A really neat game where you have cards of various wild fantasy scenes. You give a clue to make the other players guess your card, they play cards to try to steal some of the votes. You get no points if ALL or NONE of the other players guess yours, so you walk a line of being descriptive yet vague. Very creative and fun. Kayla won the first game we played.